Review and Giveaway: Lore: Tales of Myth and Legend Retold by Brinda Berry, Karen Y. Bynum, Laura Diamond, Jayne A. Knolls, Theresa DaLayne, Cate Dean

Title: Lore: Tales of Myth and Legend Retold
Authors:  Brinda Berry, Karen Y. Bynum, Laura Diamond, Jayne A. Knolls, Theresa DaLayne, Cate Dean
Publication date:
Publisher: Sweet Biscuit Publishing LLC
Goodreads

From Goodreads:
A collection of six folklore retellings that will twist your mind and claim your heart.

SHIMMER: A heartbroken boy rescues a mermaid... but is it too late to save her?

BETWEEN is about a girl, a genie, and a ton of bad decisions.

SUNSET MOON: Eloise doesn't believe in Native American magic--until the dreamcatcher spiders spin her down an unknown path.

THE MAKER: An incapacitated young man bent on revenge builds a creature to do it for him.

A BEAUTIFUL MOURNING: The story of a Maya goddess torn between duty and love, and the ultimate sacrifice she must make to achieve true happiness.

THE BARRICADES: When a human girl risks everything to save the life of an Eternal prince, will their feelings for each other change the world they know, or tear it apart?

I was in the mood for anthology, so Lore, An Anthology: Tales of Myth and Legend Retold was a great read for me. I like some stories more than the others, but overall it was a nice read and I came out knowing much more about myths and legends.

The first story, Shimmer, is a mermaid story with a twist in the end. It has romantic atmosphere, but the pacing is a bit too slow for my taste. I found the second story, Between, very interesting. It’s a classic high school elite clique story, but the appearance of djinn (genie) make this story memorable. I think the LGBT stuff can be taken more carefully, but I like the story in general. In my opinion, Sunset Moon has the strongest characterization in this anthology. It’s a bad girl meet good guy story, and their relationship is definitely swoon-worthy! I love Native American folklore, so it’s not hard for me to fall for this one. :)

The Maker… what can I say? It’s a take on golem mythology and the story reminds me a bit of Frankenstein. The guy makes a golem in order to take revenge on his girlfriend. The story lays heavily on description of action and it can bug you at times, but the plots are simply intriguing. I can definitely see the author’s potential in the story. A Beautiful Mourning has very beautiful, flowing written style. The story has poetic atmosphere in it which I’m sure many will appreciate. I love the ending in The Barricades. It ends with a hopeful note, and I think it suits well as the last story in this anthology.

All in all, Lore, An Anthology: Tales of Myth and Legend Retold is a fascinating read for me. If I have to play favorite, I think it would be A Beautiful Mourning. I’m a sucker for beautiful writing style and melancholic plots. ;) Sunset Moon is good as well. This anthology is a recommendation for anyone who wishes to visit many myths and legends in one go. From mermaid story to golem myth: just pick your favorite lore! :)

The heat from his skin dulled as his sharp eyes softened. “I will love as the mortals.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. My eyes fluttered shut. “Fearlessly and without limitations.”

from A Beautiful Mourning

3 cups of tea

Great for in-between reading!

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This is part of the tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours. Thanks for letting me joining the fun, Giselle!

 

Birthday Giveaway!

Hello everyone! I guess it doesn’t take much for you guys to guess what’s on the blog today. Today is my 21st birthday, and I’d love for you lovely readers to help me celebrate! :) Yes I'm a Summer girl! ♥ I feel young – yet so old – not so wise – but trying to. The line above doesn’t even rhyme or make sense but oh well who says I’m good in anything close to poem/stanza haha. :P

Anyways, enough Hilda blabbering! Below I offer you a list of my favorite books below and books I can't wait, courtesy of my awesomeness. I hope you'll love the book as much as I love it! If it's pre-order book, I'll pre-order it for you and have The Book Depository send it to you as soon as possible. One lucky winner will have the choice to pick one book from the list. :)

 

 

1. The giveaway is open INTERNATIONAL as long as The Book Depository ships to you.
2. Must be 13 years or older to enter.
3. The lucky winner will have option to choose ONE book from the list above.
4. The giveaway opens from today, July 6 until Wednesday, August 6.
5. Smile, because good things comes to those who spread happiness (yes, believe me your smile has that DAZZLING effect)! ♥ ;)


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Good luck to everyone who enters this giveaway! I hope to see you guys lurking around in Catch the Lune even long after the giveaway ends. ;) Thank you so much for entering. Have a lovely day, and you know the old wish: may the odds be ever in your favor! ♥

Interview and Giveaway: Out of Control by Sarah Alderson

Hello everyone! Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you my interview with Sarah Alderson, the international bestselling author for Hunting Lila series, Fated series, and many other books. She is here today to tell us more about her newest book, OUT OF CONTROL. In the end of the interview, rejoice because we have a giveaway for Catch the Lune's dear readers YAY! ;)

Let's get on to the interview!

Hi, Sarah! Welcome to Catch the Lune! It’s so amazing to have you here. *hands over a glass of coconut* Please tell us a bit about yourself! :)

I’m from London originally but I have lived in Bali for the last 4 years!

I worked in a non-profit for nine years before quitting my job, travelling the world with my husband and daughter and deciding to become an author.

I write young adult fiction (Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, The Sound…) and also New Adult fiction under the name Mila Gray.

OUT OF CONTROL, your newest book, focuses on human trafficking. What is your inspiration to write the story? How did you gather data to add details for your story?

Someone came up to me at a party and told me I should write my next book about human trafficking. I dismissed the idea at first as I didn’t feel qualified but then I felt like it was something that really needed addressing and I realised I had a platform from which to shout about the issue and hopefully inform readers.

I spoke to people who work for the UN tackling the issue and I read several books - witness accounts and memoirs. I didn’t feel comfortable writing from a victim’s POV so I switched it and made Liva the daughter of a man who runs a task force tackling human trafficking on behalf of the US government.

I heard that you have decided to venture to New Adult genre with your book (soon published in June 2014), COME BACK TO ME. What made you want to write in the genre? Is there any difference between writing a Young Adult and New Adult book?

Actually, I was asked to by the editor who acquired Hunting Lila and most my YA books. She moved from Simon & Schuster to Pan Macmillan and invited me to write a new adult novel for them. : ) I was very lucky. It’s nice to get signed to a publisher on just a paragraph story idea.

There’s a big difference in terms of the level of steam! My new adult is fairly graphic (I’ve told my parents and mother in law they are under no circumstances to read my new adult!). And also my YA books are all thrillers whereas my NA is just contemporary romance, which is much, much easier to write I find.

It’s awesome that you have published so many books (14 books so far!) in these three years. Can you please share with us some tips on how to juggle between writing and daily life tasks?

Oh goodness, I don’t know if I actually have much balance. At the moment I’m spending 15 hour days in front of my computer. I am blessed to live in Bali where I get a lot of help. Not doing the dishes means more time for writing.

I’m also very focused. I start work at 6am and I keep going. When I’m writing I write for about 6 hours straight.

Being able to touch type very fast also helps.

Is there any difference between Liva and your heroines in other series? How do you differentiate the voices of your characters?

I think Liva’s probably my toughest character since Evie in Fated. She’s grown up overseas (her father owns a private security company) around bodyguards and wealth. She’s a loner and incredibly smart.

To differentiate voices I think of the plot and then think of the best character for that plot – in terms of personal growth and backstory. I find it really easy to think of characters once I know their backstory as that influences who they are. Liva’s bodyguard was shot in front of her when she was younger – and it was her fault – or she thinks it was her fault. So then I just tried to imagine what that would do to a person to carry that level of trauma and guilt. Then I tried to picture her life and all the security and what that might feel like.

If you could have any job in this world, what would you want your job be?

Ryan Gosling’s personal dresser.

If you could be a superhero, what would your superpower be? 

Telekinetic like Lila from Hunting Lila.

If you were in Liva’s situation (witnessed a brutal murder and targeted!), would there be any moves that you would take differently?

No. I think she’s totally kickass. After the initial shock wears off she thinks like a pro. I know I’d never be that calm and collected.

Lastly:

Please share with us a particular passage from OUT OF CONTROL that you really love!

 
Thank you for the interview, Sarah! You’re such a wonderful person and a brilliant author. :)

Thanks so much for having me on your blog!

Remember to check out my Facebook page as I host regular giveaways!

Having spent most of her life in London, Sarah quit her job in the non profit sector in 2009 and took off on a

round the world trip with her husband and tutu-wearing daughter on a mission to find a new place to call home. After almost a year spent wandering around India, Singapore, Australia and the US, they settled in Bali where Sarah now spends her days writing and trying to machete open coconuts without severing a limb.

She finished her first novel Hunting Lila just before they left the UK, wrote the sequel, Losing Lila, on the beach in India, and had signed a two book deal with Simon & Schuster by the time they reached Bali.

Since then she has published a further four novels and several short stories. The contemporary thriller The Sound, will be published in the US in May 2014, while Out of Control, a thriller with a focus on human trafficking, will also be released in May in the UK.

As well as Young Adult fiction, Sarah writes New Adult fiction for Pan Macmillan under the pen name Mila Gray. Her first novel Come Back To Me will be out in summer 2014.

Sarah has co-written the Hunting Lila screenplay and is working on several other books and screenplays (multi-tasking is one of her favorite things).

Sarah is represented by Amanda Preston at Luigi Bonomi Associates (literary agents), and by Josh Varney & Mady Niel at 42 for screenwriting and books to film.

From Goodreads:
When 17 year old Liva witnesses a brutal murder she’s taken into police custody for her own protection. But when the police station is attacked and bullets start flying it becomes clear that Liva is not just a witness, she’s a target.

Together with a car thief called Jay, Liva manages to escape the massacre but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit two killers who will stop at nothing to find them.

When you live on the edge, there’s a long way to fall.

And of course... what you all have been waiting for! :)
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Open INTERNATIONAL. The winner will win an ebook copy of OUT OF CONTROL provided by lovely Sarah Alderson, so make sure that you thank her and follow her journey through the bookishland! :)

Giveaway ends June 1. Winners will be notified by email. May the odds be ever in your favor! :)a

Interview and Giveaway: Gina Linko

Hello there lovelies! Wow, it has been such a long time since I did an interview/giveaway in Catch the Lune, right? Therefore I'm so pleased to bring you Gina Linko today! Gina is the author of Flutter, the YA sci-fi romance coming from Random House this October 23rd! There will also be giveaway in the end, so without further ado... please welcome Gina Linko! :)

 
Hello, Gina! Welcome to my blog! It’s amazing to have you here! :) Please tell us a bit about yourself.

Thank you for having me! I think your blog is supercool, and I am thrilled to be here! I am a writer, a college writing teacher, and a mother. I have three small kids and basically reading and writing are my hobbies. I used to teach middle-school science too, so I think I’ve always had a sort of bend toward science and science fiction.

What was your inspiration for writing Flutter?

I like to just go with the what-if of things. I like to read science-y things and take it one step further. What if….? The ending of FLUTTER is something I had worked out in my head, just this can’t-guess-it, surprising, twist of an ending, and the story sort of unfolded backwards for me, with the ending driving the story. But basically, Emery is the main character and she has had these seizures her whole life, but they are not just seizures. She believes she is time-traveling. She calls it looping. When her loops start to intersect with her real life, things start to get a little crazy, and Emery follows clues from her loops to solve the mystery of her special power, as well as a few other mysteries along the way. And also a cute boy. Of course, a cute boy with secrets.

Emery, the main character in Flutter, loves Dala horses. Is there any particular reason why she loves the wooden statuette (other than because it’s super cute, of course! ;) )?

They’re Scandinavian, sort of a good luck charm. In the book, she loves the dala horses because she stays at a cabin, one that is called the Dala Cabin, because it is decorated with these little horses. And they become special to her for a number of reasons, which I can’t give away!

What should we expect from Flutter when we read it? :)

Oh, you can expect romance, mystery, a sci-fi twist, time travel, but even more than that it is a story about what is really important in life. Figuring out exactly what is important in life, to you. It’s about love and loss. About our fate and choices. And, of course, you can expect a great big twist at the end!

If you could go back in time and met your teenage self, what would you tell to the young you?

So many things! To start with, perms are not good. Don’t do it! The 80s were not kind to our hair, people! Check out my bio in my web site and you can see the actual photographic proof. Seriously, though. I would tell myself, Be yourself. Cultivate your hobbies – what you like to do. Not what is “in” or what is cool. Be yourself. Because we all only get this one go-around. One life. Fill it with what you are passionate about. (That sounds kinda dorky and cliché, but I mean it!)

If you were a witch, what spell would you cast mostly in your life?

Do I have to choose one? Is there a spell for getting my kids to brush their teeth? Or a spell to clean that grimy stuff out of the kitchen sink drain? I would like those spells. ; )

What would you do if you were transported into before century time?

Probably I’d wander around trying to tell people that I had come from the future and no one would believe me, and then I’d try to find Doc to build me a flux capacitor. (I’m not sure if that is too old of a reference. Is it?) Seriously, I would LOVE to travel back in time, and I’d probably do some dorky things like wander libraries and try to find old first editions of books or something. Stalk old literary stars and artists.

If you could talk to one animal, what animal would you choose to talk to? 

I just love these questions! I would definitely talk to a cat. Don’t they just always look like they have it all figured out?

Lastly:

What do you love most about being an author? :)

Aside from the thrill of sitting at your keyboard and really getting in the groove of writing, I love to hear from fans. To hear that your work, your little spark of an idea, has touched someone out there, it’s inspiring. Truly.

Thank you for answering the questions, Gina! Hehe, I would definitely choose cat too! They always seem to know things you don't know, right? ;)

Gina Linko has a graduate degree in creative writing from DePaul University and lives outside Chicago with her husband and three children. Gina teaches college English part-time, but her real passion is sitting down at a blank computer screen and asking herself the question, "What if...?"

 

 Goodreads * Twitter * Blog

All Emery Land wants is to be like any other 17-year-old—to go to school, hang out with her friends, and just be normal. But for as long as she can remember, she’s suffered from seizures. And in recent years they’ve consumed her life. To Emery they’re much more than seizures, she calls them loops—moments when she travels through wormholes back and forth in time and to a mysterious town. The loops are taking their toll on her physically. So she practically lives in the hospital where her scientist father and an ever-growing team of doctors monitor her every move. They’re extremely interested in the data they collect when Emery seizes. It appears that she’s tapping into parts of the brain typically left untouched by normal human beings.

Escaping from the hospital, Emery travels to Esperanza, the town from her loops on the upper peninsula of Michigan, where she meets Asher Clarke. Ash’s life is governed by his single-minded pursuit of performing good Samaritan acts to atone for the death of a loved one. His journey is very much entwined with Emery’s loops.

Drawn together they must unravel their complicated connection before it’s too late.

Website * Goodreads * Amazon * Book Depository

Now, move on to what I know everyone has giddily anticipated....

Open INTERNATIONAL. The first winner will win a signed hardcover copy of Flutter. The second winner will win a hardcover copy of Flutter, pre-ordered by me from Book Depostory. Three runners up will each win a signed bookmark.. The signed copy and bookmarks are provided by lovely Gina Linko, so make sure that you thank her and follow her journey through the bookishland! :)

Giveaway ends October 24. Winners will be notified by email. May the odds be ever in your favor! :)

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